How ‘Clifton Rapist’ Ron Evans was caught in police honeytrap

In the late 1970s, women in the Clifton, Redland and Westbury Park areas of Bristol were living in fear.

Over an 18-month period seven women were attacked and sexually assaulted, many as they walked home at night.

As the attacks became more serious, students were warned not to walk alone at night.

In a bid to draw the “Clifton Rapist” out, male police officers dressed up in long blonde wigs, stockings, high heeled shoes and padded bras and walked the city streets.

Ron Evans, a convicted killer and rapist, was the man behind the attacks.

Now, at the age of 82, he has been jailed again after sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman with disabilities who he had befriended in London.

In 1964 Evans raped and murdered 21-year-old Kathleen Heathcote in Nottinghamshire.

Despite being sentenced to life in prison, he was released after just 11 years and moved from the Midlands to Bristol.

He settled down with his family in the suburb of Patchway on the northern fringes of the city and tried to bury his past.

Evans started working as an electrician at the Commonwealth Smelting Works in Avonmouth.

To all appearances he was a quiet man who liked an occasional drink and playing for the skittles team in the work social club.

But in the summer of 1977, his criminal side resurfaced, and seven women were attacked at night across north west Bristol.

“Suddenly somebody came steaming out of the back of the house, out of the bushes – grabbed me and almost immediately got an arm around my neck so I was in a strangle hold,” said one victim at the time.

“I can remember that I screamed, and I really didn’t think I was going to get out of it alive.”

With public pressure mounting, Avon and Somerset Police launched an undercover operation in January 1979, in a bid to catch the man dubbed the “Clifton Rapist”.

Four young female police officers dressed in plain clothes were sent out on to the streets to act as decoys to try to draw the attacker out.

They were joined by four male officers dressed up as women, complete with long blonde wigs, stockings, high heeled shoes and padded bras.

Every week, three nights a week, for two months they returned to the streets and in the early hours of 23 March, 1979, Evans fell into their honeytrap.

Police officer Michelle Leonard was grabbed by an unsuspecting Evans and told “Don’t scream or I’ll kill you”.

“[He] was following me on foot, I was then told that this man was on life licence for murder and had previous convictions for rape,” she said.

“I did think then should I go on or should I stop.

“And I turned around and he was on my shoulder. With that he’d then grabbed me around the throat and that was sufficient for him to be arrested.”

Once detained, Evans confessed to five indecent assaults and was jailed for life for a second time.

A judge said it was “unlikely” he would ever be released but in 2018, after just 39 years, Evans was freed again by a parole board.

The 82-year-old is now behind bars again after sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman with disabilities he befriended as a volunteer in London.

Lisa Durston, from Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS), said women were being “failed” by the system.

“For us it just represents yet another failing in the criminal justice system, which is meant to protect women and keep us safe from those kinds of crimes,” she said.

Charity Women Against Rape also claimed women’s lives and safety had not been prioritised.

In a statement it said: “Despite being identified as a serial attacker by the police and courts, Evans has been repeatedly released and enabled to attack other women.

“In 1963 he only served 11 years after he had raped and murdered one poor woman – why do women’s lives and safety count for so little?

“This is a pattern we have complained about for years, and we call out the misogyny of the criminal justice system.

“Look at [Jimmy] Savile, and the Yorkshire Ripper where the police repeatedly ignored surviving victims’ descriptions.

“It tells us that women and girls are just not worth protecting.”

But the Parole Board has defended its decisions in the Evans case.

“Decisions are solely focussed on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community,” a spokesperson said.

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